Thanksgiving

I tend to associate Thanksgiving with being home with my family in California. My brother, sister, cousins, aunts, uncles and other assorted family friends gathered at my mom's house for a ridiculous feast. We usually have traditional American Thanksgiving food (turkey, ham, sweet potatoes, etc.) but it's mixed together with Chinese food like sticky rice instead of stuffing, bok choy or Chinese broccoli instead of green beans. The food is lined up along the kitchen counter buffet style and everyone steps up to get their first serving. Then their second. Sometimes even a third. It's delicious and comforting.

We haven't had Thanksgiving at my mom's in a long time. The plan was to go this year but we decided to move our trip a month earlier since I was less than enthusiastic about traveling over the holiday weekend - the busiest travel time of the year. Instead, we drove down to New Jersey to spend the holiday with Ed's parents and grandmother. I am thankful for having family nearby. Instead of the Chinese-American Thanksgiving dinner, we will have a Polish-American Thanksgiving dinner.

I've still been thinking a lot about gratitude. I am trying to be more present in order to be more centered. Rather than thinking about all the things that I should be doing or the challenges I may be facing or other things that I'm not happy about, I'm trying to just focus on the crazy, silly, cute things that my sons are doing right now. Focusing on the smiles on my sons' faces when we pull into their grandparents' driveway. It's a work in progress. Here's an interesting piece on cultivating gratitude both in our children and in ourselves.

Happy Thanksgiving! I hope that everyone has a wonderful day with their family and friends.